BACKSLIDING

Our next lesson deals with a preeminently practical subject, the
matter of what we call "backsliding." This comes under practical
theology that is, the application of what we have learned to be
true doctrinally from the word of God.

To begin with, "backsliding" is not a New Testament term: it is
an Old Testament term. The term comes from Proverbs 14 and
Jeremiah 2. You should be careful to note this because, although
we use the term practically and devotionally in reference to a
Christian out of fellowship with the Lord, doctrinally there is
no such thing as a backslidden Christian.

In Proverbs 14:14 we read, "The backslider in heart shall be
filled with his own ways." This gives us enough righteous cause
to take the matter of backsliding and apply it to individuals in
some cases, because Proverbs 14 is certainly aimed at an
individual. When he says, "The backslider in heart," obviously he
is talking about an individual. But for this one mention of the
backslidden individual in the book of Proverbs 14, you will find
the term applied five times to Israel as a nation. So, we are
dealing with odds of about five to one. The reference in Proverbs
14:14 is the only time it is used for an individual, and this is
in the Old Testament under the law. Now, the word, most of the
time, is used in reference to the nation of Israel that has
turned its back on God. Notice in particular Jeremiah 2:19, "thy
backslidings shall reprove thee." This is how the term is used
mainly, in reference to Israel as a nation. It is talking about a
nation that has gone back on God and is sliding back like a
backsliding heifer. Notice "backsliding Israel" (Jer. 3:11); 
"backsliding Israel" (Jer. 3:6); "backsliding Israel" (Jer.
3:12); "backsliding children" (Jer. 3:14). So the term
''backslider" is not a New Testament term.

The accurate term for a Christian who is in the condition of a
backslider is "out of fellowship with the Lord." So, the position
is that of a Christian whose heart has gone back on God, but, of
course, he is still saved, and he can never be unsaved. (Whoever
heard of such a thing as being ''unborn again''?) The people who
argue about eternal security are the ones who don't have it. That
has been pretty well established throughout the years. The people
who talk the most about losing it are people who don't know what
it is about. What could be any funnier than a Campbellite and a
Charismatic sitting around talking about eternal security? What
could be funnier than that? If you don't know anything about it,
how do you discuss it? But, a Christian who is out of fellowship
with God has a problem in the heart. Several verses in the Bible
are aimed at Christians to warn them about this condition. For
example, 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, "Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Proverbs 16:18
says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit
before a fall."

Now, the Lord is able to keep us from falling; that is for
certain. But, of course, when you speak of these things the
unsaved elders think that you are talking about falling from
grace. This nonsense taught by unsaved preachers comes from
Galatians 5:4, where you are told the man who is counting on the
law to justify him is fallen from grace. When an unsaved elder is
trying to get saved by water, he will insist that a Christian can
fall from grace because of the passage in Galatians 5. Whereas,
if you look at the passage in Galatians 5 you will find that
there is no reference to a Christian in the passage at all. The
reference is to an unsaved man who is counting on his good works
to save him, keeping the law. So, when we talk about falling, the
unsaved elder always thinks about a Christian losing salvation.
This is quite natural for a man who never had it. But when the
Bible speaks about falling in 1 Corinthians 10:12 and 2 Timothy
1:12, it is talking about the fact that even though the Christian
is saved, born again, headed home for heaven, and part of Christ,
that he can fall into sin. He can fall into trouble. And, if that
isn't enough, Proverbs 24:16 says, "For a just man falleth seven
times, and riseth up again." There is a great deal of difference
between falling in the aisle of an airplane at 32,000 feet and
falling out the door of that airplane, if you get what I mean.
When an unsaved elder tries to damn your soul by teaching you
water salvation, he thinks that what happens is when you are in
Christ somebody opens the door and you get kicked out of Christ
and dropped 32,000 feet. That's nonsense. When the Christian
falls in Christ, he is in Christ when he falls, and he is in
Christ when he gets back up. Nothing can separate you from
Christ, and nothing can take you out of Christ.

Now, what is a backslider, practically speaking? Well,
backsliding is turning away from God. In 1 Kings 11:9 we read, 
"And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was
turned from the Lord God." When a Christian gets out of
fellowship, he grows cold and leaves his first love. Revelation
2:4 says, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love." Getting out of fellowship with
God as a saved person is turning from the simplicity of the
gospel to salvation by some other way. It is preaching something
that isn't so. Some define backsliding as one sin that separates
the believer from the Lord, and of course these people are
unsaved people who never joined the Lord to start with or they
are heretics who renounce their sanity temporarily in order to
make a living.

Speaking scripturally, the term ''backsliding" is growing cold
and losing interest in the Lord, losing interest in the Bible,
losing interest in prayer, losing interest in going to church,
ceasing to witness, and turning to the world for help. So, we may
say that ninety-five percent of all the Christians in America
today are in a backslidden condition. The reason you can't have
fellowship with the average Christian is you have to backslide to
get into fellowship with him. The average Christian does not
witness, and when he does, he witnesses about gifts instead of
people going to hell. He does not have the courage to tell
unsaved people they are going to hell. The average Christian is
in fellowship with the world in order to make a living. He is
afraid if he condemns the world, the world will condemn him.

Backsliding is a gradual process. It doesn't happen suddenly. You
may be shocked later by the sudden outward manifestation of
terrible sin, but as Bob Jones, Sr., so aptly said, ''At the
bottom of every tragedy in human character is a long process of
wicked thinking." Many little things have entered in and
undermined the life long before it comes to a shocking tragedy.
The story of Lot's backsliding illustrates this point.

Notice Lot's seven downward steps which we will list now.

1. Covetousness: "Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the
plain" (Gen. 13:10). The eyes are the first to leave the Savior.
This is what got Eve in trouble. This is what got David in
trouble. When Achan got in trouble he said, "I saw...I
coveted...I took" (Josh. 7:21). Things seem attractive. Many a
man made the mistake of fixing his eyes on the wrong object. This
is why Job said, "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then
should I think upon a maid?" (Job 31:1). So covetousness is the
first cause of backsliding: the desire to do something big for
God; the desire to build a great work; the desire to have a large
building and large pieces of land; the desire to have a
tremendous attendance and a tremendous enrollment and a
tremendous income. Covetousness. The Bible says to beware of
covetousness which is idolatry (Col. 3:5). The Bible says, "And
having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (l Tim.
6:8).

2. Choice: Lot made too low a choice. He chose the plain instead
of the mountain. The application here is apparent. When Caleb and
Joshua went into the land they came back and said, "Let us go up
at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it"
(Num. 13:30). Caleb said, "Give me this mountain,"  the hard
place, the tough place (Josh. 14). Caleb aimed high. His sights
were up. Lot's were down, looking down at the earth.

3. Compromise: Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. We read in
Genesis 13:13, "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners
before the Lord exceedingly." Abraham prospered up there on the
mountain with God. He was separated and a reactionary and an
isolationist. That is, when Lot got involved in the "total
community, ethnic enterprise," then he lost his shirt. So, one of
the best ways the world has in knocking off a Christian is
getting him what we call ''involved.'' Involvement in the Bible
means entanglement in the world system. Paul said, "No man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he
may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Tim. 2:4).
The reason eighty percent of our churches in America are totally
ineffective is because they are totally involved. When a called
out, born again bunch of people whose conversation is in heaven,
who were told, "Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world" (1 John 2:15), when a bunch of people like that,
who were told, "That which is highly esteemed among men is
abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15), when a bunch of
people like that, whose Savior said, "I pray not for the world" 
(John 17:8), become totally involved in welfare, ERA, Gay
Liberation, city pollution, water pollution, civil rights, and
human rights, they lose everything but their salvation (if they
ever had it), and they become a powerless pipsqueak of an
organization hanging on to the coattails of a world that
crucified their Savior. Community involvement is the last thing a
Christian should ever get involved in. That is what Lot got
involved in. As a matter of fact, he sat in the gate as one of
the councilmen or aldermen or one of the mayor's assistants.

4. Capture: Lot was captured by the enemy in Genesis 14:11-12. If
one lives too near sin, one will be captured. Let the converted
drunkard leave the liquor store. I don't mean the "convenience
store." I mean the booze shop. I mean the beer joint. Don't call
it by something that it is not. "Convenience store.'' Oh, aren't
we refined? Let the thief be removed from the place of
temptation. If you flirt with the world, you will get burned. If
you give sin your finger it will take your hand, then your arm,
then your body, then your soul.

5. Carnal: Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; he was a member of the
town council, a committee man, an alderman. He had gained worldly
influence by "total involvement with the ecological,
environmental control,'' and he lost all the power he ever had
with God. Lot loved Sodom. Lot loved the thing that God hated and
was about to burn. Do you know how God felt about Sodom? He
burned everybody in it except Lot and his family. That's how God
felt about Sodom. Somebody said, ''Well, God loved the sinner.''
Yeah, enough to burn him. We have a funny kind of teaching today.
We have a funny kind of teaching that it is a heresy to say what
David said when he said, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate
thee?" (Ps. 139:21). We have a terrible aversion today to quote
the passage that says, "These six things doth the Lord hate...a
proud look...an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations...and he
that soweth discord among the brethren" (Prov. 6:16-19). These
people that split the body of Christ with fifty different
authorities called "translations" that all go against each other,
the Lord says He hates them. Now, this is considered heresy by
the modern, apostate Christian. The modern Christian is an
apostate and is happy as long as you talk about love and peace,
peace and love, love and peace, peace and love. But, once you
begin to talk about hate and wrath and judgment, he will turn it
off. Why? Because he is an apostate. The first word Satan ever
said was, "Yea"Ä"yes'' (Gen. 3:1). The fact is, Lot loved Sodom
and God hated it, and to show His hatred, God burned everybody in
that town and that took care of the babies and the cripples on
crutches. You say, "He wouldn't do it." He did it. Do you know
what Jesus said in the New Testament? He said, "Remember Lot's
wife" (Luke 17:32). Do you know what God did to her? He turned
her into a pillar of salt. People forget sometimes that the God
who held little babies and the God who said, "Suffer little
children to come unto me" (Luke 18:16), and the God who said that
love is the greatest of the gifts, drowned over five million
people and left only one man and his family. God sent the flood.
The weatherman had nothing to do with it. Lot became carnal.

6. Crippled: Lot got weak. He got so weak he was willing to give
his two daughters into sin. This shows us that when a man goes
down and takes the road to backsliding and gets out of fellowship
with God, he will take others with him. When Lot tried to witness
he was like a man that mocked to his sonsin-law (Gen. 19:14), and
this is why most Christians don't dare tell people about the
judgment of God. Lot had to go down there and tell them that God
was going to burn the place. Now, if Lot had gone down there and
said, "Boys, I just came down to share with you my experience and
share this verse of scripture with you, and if you will share a
few minutes with me I'll share a few minutes with you, and if we
will total community share with our five year share plan and
share our products with those that have with those that have not
and share with each other and this sharing is reciprocal so that
each has an equal share, I would like to share the love and peace
of God. Peace, brother, love, brother. Let's share everything,"
they would have taken it. But he went down there and said,
''Boys, pack your duds and hit the road. God is going to burn
this place to a farethee-well.'' And his sons-in-law said, "Ah,
don't kid us. You're joking." They had Lot's number.

7. Cave: Lot winds up drunk in a cave. He loved sin. He lingered
in sin and he wound up drunk and immoral. You say, ''Where is
Lot?'' Lot is in heaven (2 Peter 2:6-8). He's a saved man. Now,
you unsaved people who believe in salvation by works and
experiences and emotions, you can't take that kind of Bible
doctrine. Second Peter 2:6-8 says that Lot was a just and
righteous man and vexed his righteous soul with the filthy
conversation of the wicked. He was a spiritual brother to Abraham
because, although Lot was his nephew, Abraham refers to him as
brethren.

Lot is a picture of a Christian who loses all that he has at the
judgment seat of Christ when his works are tried by fire (1 Cor.
3:8-12). Read it. Some people want to continue in the humanistic
slop they're in, the emotional, devotional, sharing of their
experiences because it is safe, but they can't be a cowards
forever! They have to face the truth. The truth is the Christian
can get in the condition Lot got in and still wind up in heaven.
And, the truth is many are on that road right now, and they don't
want to consider what I have just read, because it shows how they
are going to wind up. The truth of the matter is some people
haven't told an unsaved man he was going to hell since the day
they got saved. They have already started in Lot's path.

Now, what were the outward causes of Lot's condition? How did he
get out of fellowship with the Lord? Well, covetousness, as we
said before. Lot lusted for some things that it was not God's
will for him to have. Then, society. The fact that Lot's wife
looked back shows what she thought of the old homestead and the
old crowd, and she couldn't leave it. Christ said one time to his
would-be disciples, "No man, having put his hand to the plough,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).
Paul was the famous one who said, "forgetting those things which
are behind" (Phil. 3 :13). Society caused Lot's backsliding. The
fear of man, a haughty spirit, selfishness, idolatry,
disobedience; all these things contribute to backsliding.
Proverbs 16:18 says that a haughty spirit goes before a fall.
Proverbs 14:14 says, "The backslider in heart shall be filled
with his own ways."

Israel constantly went away from the Lord after false gods. The
Lord said about Saul, "he is turned back from following me, and
hath not performed my commandments" (1 Sam. 15:11 ). The history
of man is the history of perpetual, constant backsliding; like
the old Christian song says, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love." The love of money for Judas;
outlandish women for Solomon; ambition for power, Simon (Acts 8
:18-19); love of the world, Demas .

The real cause of backsliding is failure to maintain a time
everyday when you pray to the Lord and study God's word. Failure
to pray and failure to read the Bible are the two main causes of
backsliding. It is disobedience to God not to pray. It is
disobedience to God not to read your Bible. You were commanded to
study to shew yourself approved (2 Tim. 2:15). If you are not
reading your Bible you do not have information about God's will
for your life or God's plan for your life. If you forsake the
assembling of yourselves together (Heb. 10:25), then you have
disobeyed the Lord there. This is failure to obey the Holy
Spirit, failure to confess Christ, failure to walk in the light;
all contribute to the Christian getting out of fellowship with
God. Christ said, "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt.
10:33). The Bible says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30).
When we grieve the Holy Spirit and quench the Holy Spirit and lie
to the Holy Spirit, we get in a backslidden condition.

The results of backsliding are manifest. When the Christian is
out of fellowship with the Lord there is a loss of power, loss of
peace, loss of joy and happiness, and most of the time a loss of
assurance of salvation. Many of the people who doubt their
salvation are simply Christians who are miserable because they
have disobeyed God and are trying to make both ends meet with the
world and the Bible, and they will not meet. They never have, and
they never will. When the Christian is out of fellowship with
God, murmuring and darkness will begin to cloud the daily
pathway. Backsliding will lead to the loss of rewards, and the
person will suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor.
3:15). God's Old Testament promise to backsliding Israel was, "I 
will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine
anger is turned away from him" (Hosea 14:4).

Now, the way to prevent backsliding and stay in fellowship with
the Lord is very simple. Apply Romans 6 and 7 to your life. After
you are saved reckon yourself to be dead. Discipline the body,
mortify the members.

Be like David who said, "I will set no wicked thing before mine
eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside" (Ps. 101:3). Be
very careful what is set before your eyes because the light of
the body is the eye. Therefore, the greatest factor in your
backslidden condition in America is the television set. The
television set takes up time for prayer, the first cause of
backsliding; takes up time spent in the word, second cause of
backsliding; puts bad things before your eyes, the third cause
for backsliding, which means that no Christian in America can
spend any time with the idiot box and stay in fellowship with the
Lord. It cannot be done.

The true object our eyes should be set upon is the Lord Jesus
Christ, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith"
(Heb. 12:2). Paul's goal was Christ: "I press toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"  (Phil.
3:14). The only way you can prevent backsliding is spend time in
prayer, spend time in the word of God, mortify your members on
earth and put them to death, and be careful what you look at.
When Eve saw the fruit, the whole chain reaction began and it
isn't over yet. Stay in fellowship with the Lord. "But if we walk
in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin" (1 John 1:7). If you have been backsliding, repent.
Remember God is willing to forgive, forget and give you a second
chance. He gave Samson a second chance. He gave Jonah a second
chance. He gave David a second chance. He gave Simon Peter a
second chance. He will give you another chance. Repent. Return to
the Lord. Judge your sin, confess it, get clean and go on for
God.